Home Sweet Home
by McRaider
Summary: INTRUDER SPOILERS! COMPLETE! Post Intruder, what we didn't see, Rodney tries to cope with the aftermath of seeing his sister...and Elizbeth helps. McWeir


Home Sweet Home  
McRaider  
Summary: Post Intruder, it's been a long month since the Wraith have disappeared, but what didn't we see after the episode. McWeir.

_He hesitatingly knocked on the door, he hadn't realized he was holding his breath until the door opened and she stood there looking at him in both shock and perhaps anger._

_"What the hell do you want?" she growled at him, instantly he felt his life slipping back into the usual loneliness he knew, except he had spent the past year getting used to being cared about perhaps even loved. And now he was back to the pain and sorrow._

_"I…I uh…"he didn't know what else to say, how to say it. His stomach rolled in fear and perhaps disappointment. Had she gotten his video, did it mean a thing to her._

_"You don't really expect to just leave then suddenly show up after some video and think we're okay do you?" she hissed._

_It was another shot to his heart, he dropped his eyes to the ground, "I…Jeannie…"_

_"Rodney, we spent ten years barely speaking to each other, and another ten years ignoring each other. You weren't even at mom or dad's funerals," she growled._

_Rodney looked up in stunned sadness, he didn't know why he should truly care, but somehow her words had hurt, "m…mom died?" he whispered softly. True they had never been close like some mothers and sons, but he loved her in all her lazy, and weakness. He loved his mother._

_"Yeah six months ago, the military should have notified you, probably did and you didn't even give enough of a damn to show up."_

_"I…I…uh have to go…I'm sorry, and I promise I won't come back," he whispered as he quickly backed away from her and from the house. _

He looked up at the beautiful stars, he had missed them so much, one year on this place and suddenly he felt more at home here than he ever had in his entire lifetime on Earth. In his hand he held a pink ribbon, his mother had given it to him fifteen years earlier…

_"Mom, no offense but why are you giving me this?" he asked in confusion._

_"Look Rodney, you and I have never been very close I understand you blame your father on me, but…I have breast cancer, I felt you deserved to know, it's treatable, but…I know you probably don't even care, but if you do you'll at least keep it. It's a symbol for fighting breast cancer."_

Against some better judgment he had kept it. He had held onto it for fifteen years, and two bouts breast cancer both times his mother had beat it…but like so many things in life, she couldn't win forever.

He hadn't cried in so many years, he had always felt he was beyond feeling such sadness, so few people even cared about him. He never really had anyone to care about either…at least not until he had reached Atlantis.

Sighing he let the ribbon go and watched it drifted over the side and fell to the city below. She was gone, he certainly never felt close to her, but he wished suddenly that he could turn back the clock and at least tell her goodbye, or that he did love her.

"Rodney, are you all right?" he jumped slightly at the voice behind him and quickly rubbed his hands over his face, trying to destroy any look of tears in his eyes or on his face.

Elizabeth approached him as she exited the doors, looking at him sadly she smiled softly. She gently rubbed his back as she came to stand by his side at the edge of the balcony. She couldn't think of how many times she had come out here to talk to the way war scientist. She valued his input, cherished his friendship and adored his personality as much as anyone. Granted sometimes he drove her and the rest of Atlantis up the wall, there was no question in her mind that he care deeply for everyone and would risk his life.

"Fine," he replied softly as he laced his fingers together and looked back up at the stars, "I honestly didn't think I could miss this so much."

"I know what you mean…I suddenly can't imagine going to sleep without listening to the ocean crashing against our fair city."

"So…how's Simon?" Rodney asked causally looking at her. He knew instantly as her face fell, that it was no doubt the wrong one to ask.

"He…he found someone else," she said smiling sadly to him. "Did you see Jeannie?"

"She…." He paused and smiled in anger, "doesn't want to see me…I told her…promised her I wouldn't see her anymore."

"I'm sorry Rodney," she whispered reaching out and gently squeezing his hands, "what else?" she had come to know this man perhaps better than nearly anyone on her base and she knew by his body language that there was something else really bothering him.

"My…it's funny I was never really close to my parents, my mother hated my dad and dad hated me. My mother was too weak or just lacked the compassion to ever help me when my father decided I had come of age to take proper beatings like a true man. She just stood back screaming sometimes crying as my father beat the tar out of me. But…but my father died when I was twenty-two and for the first time in my life my mother approached me. She told me how sorry she was that she let this happen to me. But by then it was too late. I had isolated myself beyond all comprehension. She handed me a pink ribbon and told me she had breast cancer…"

"Rodney…" Elizabeth began as she watched him for a moment.

"She died…eight months ago, and I never even knew," he whispered softly. "Jeannie thinks I'm a terrible son, that I had no right to be considered a McKay," he shrugged a part of him honestly feeling and believing it was true.

"You know what, I don't care."

"Excuse me?" he said in question, searching her face in fear.

"I don't care what she thinks, you're more a McKay than any of them. Rodney," she gently pulled his shoulders around so he was facing her, she grasped both his hands in between hers. "Rodney McKay you are a good man, an honest good man, you make mistakes but you're still a wonderful caring man. If they didn't see that then it's their own damn fault. You're a part of something so much bigger than she'll never even completely understand it. You're a scientist, a doctor, a solider, a brother and a best friend," she stepped closer to him.

"Simon is an idiot," he whispered, "how anyone could let someone like you go…is out of his mind," he reached out and gently touched her cheek, running his thumb gently over her silky cheek. "You deserve so much better."

"Well thank you, so do you," her eyes met his.

He hadn't ever done something so spontaneous in his life, but a second later he had drawn her lips to his, pressing his own dried sunburned lips to hers. For a moment she was stiff, but soon she sank in and started kissing back. His other hand went to her other cheek, cupping both of them gently. Her own hands slipping to the back of his neck.

After a few more moments they finally parted, breathing through swollen lips as they stared at each other, Rodney instantly turned pale, "I'm sorry," he whimpered.

He turned to leave before she could openly reject him, however he instantly grabbed his hand and gently pulled him close again, "thank you for always caring," she reached up and pressed her lips to his cheek.

She left the balcony, and the scientist behind, a grin wider than Atlantis' ocean spreading across his face. He looked out at the stars again, with a soft salute he turned to head back inside Atlantis and get some sleep.

The End


End file.
